One Year Anniversary, One-Minute Play Fest!
This event has now passed. Thanks to everyone who came out and CONGRATS to this year’s winner: Ava Love Hanna!
Meet the Playwrights!
Ava Love Hanna is a professional writer, published playwright, and award-winning speaker and storyteller living in Austin, Texas. She is continually amazed by how often she is mistaken for a real grown-up.
Bea Dennis is an Orlando area playwright, theatre artist, and aspiring drama therapist. Her Orlando theatre credits include "Geist" with Playwrights Round Table, "Steel Magnolias" with Breakthrough Theatre Company, and "Horror in Headphones: Resurrection" with Phoenix Tears Productions. She is excited to be working with Whiskey Theatre Factory on this project ahead of the premiere of her play "Love Again", which is a part of Breakthrough Theatre's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love 4". She would like to especially thank Bethany Dickens for all her support.
Brianna is an actress, writer and director currently based in Los Angeles. Above all else, she loves storytelling, and firmly believes that stories give birth to compassion. She graduated from Rollins College with a degree in theatre performance, and has continued to perform both on stage and on screen. Her most recent performance as Chelsea in the short film Take Care Zora, will premiere at the Dolby Cinema in LA in March. Her recent directorial debut, with the short film The Burden, will premiere in festivals across the country in the upcoming months. She is currently developing a pilot and a feature length historical play. In her free time, she loves baking bread, reading, and watching Hell's Kitchen.
I’m Cole Simon, a local Orlando playwright who also happens to be in high school. I have been writing for as long as I can remember, mixing genres and mediums. My plays switch between comedy and dark realism, with central themes that often relate to my life experiences. I participated in last year’s One Minute Play Festival with “Tomato Man” and extended it for a full length One Act that was produced by Winter Park High School.
Dave Osmundsen is a queer and autistic playwright and dramaturg whose work has been seen and developed at the Kennedy Center, KCACTF Region 8, B Street Theatre, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Midwest Dramatists Conference, Phoenix Theatre Company, and others. He was named one of two recipients of the inaugural Future of Playwriting Prize from the Blank Theatre and Ucross. His play LIGHT SWITCH was a 2021 BAPF Finalist, a 2020 NPF semi-finalist, a Carlo Annoni Playwriting Prize finalist, and was longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. His one-act, A FIREWORK UNEXPLODED, was a semi-finalist for the NYC Audio Theatre Writing Contest. His play STUPID, FAT, UGLY was a semi-finalist for the 2017 National Playwrights Conference. His plays have been published or are forthcoming from Canyon Voices, the Exposition Review, the Dionysian, and Broadway Play Publishing. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Arizona State University.
Dina Najjar is an award-winning actor, voice actor, filmmaker, and writer. She's excited to be a part of this competition for the second year in a row! Her comedy pilot "Casting Josie" was a Semifinalist in the 2021 Screencraft TV Pilot Script Competition. Her short play "Detention", which was written and produced in twenty-four hours for Beth Marshall Presents Play-in-a-Day, was a Semifinalist in the 2022 MadLab Theatre Short Play Festival. You can watch her in the feature "The Christmas Ride" streaming on Amazon Prime Video and in Season 2 of "The Family Business" streaming on BET Plus. You can learn more about Dina at www.DinaNajjar.com and follow her adventures on IG and Twitter @createwithdina.
Elisabeth Giffin Speckman received her MFA in Fiction from Butler University. She is a playwright and actor. Her plays have been produced throughout the United States as well as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Israel. Her plays include Catch/Release (Henley Rose finalist) and Clyt; or, The Bathtub Play. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Midwestern Gothic, Pidgeonholes, CHEAP POP, Flash Fiction Magazine, Three Line Poetry, Stage It! 2: 30 Ten Minute Plays, and Smith & Kraus Best Men’s Monologues, 2021. More information at egspeckman.com.
Ghina Fawaz (she/her/hers) is a senior at Rollins College double majoring in psychology and theatre with a double emphasis in directing and performance. She is curious about the intersectionality of theatre and healing and has developed a number of projects that address topics such as racial trauma and suicide prevention through resesarched, imaginative, and interactive methods. Additionally, she is passionate about inclusivity in theatre and empowering underrepresented voices as she is a student leader for the Rollins Theatre Students and Alumni of Color Action Group and the student coordinator for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Look forward to Ghina's next project: she will be directing The Pillowman at Rollins in April!
Jodi Antenor (she/her/hers) is an actress and playwright with more than 16 years of experience in the entertainment industry. At the age of 18, she moved to Florida and was immediately welcomed with three back to back hurricanes. Ever the optimist, she stayed in Florida where she went on to perform in a multitude of different shows and parades at several different theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, and the Nickelodeon Hotel. As a part of the development team for the Whiskey Theater Factory, Jodi hopes to create a community where playwrights and actors feel welcomed, confident, and free to explore their creativity. In her free time, Jodi loves to play softball and travel to new destinations.
Leonard Peterson III is a recent Acting grad from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of music and was born in Bell county, Tx and raised in Radcliff, Ky. Leonard has worked with professionally with The Carnegie Theatre, where he was the U/S for Jimmy Early and was apart of the ensemble; The Cats theatre where he portrayed Avery in Annie Baker’s the Flick and finally with the Cincinnati Fringe festival where he played the loving and cunning character of Elis in The Consciousness which was written by Bethany Dickens. Leonard is also a poet and is just now dabbling in the playwright and screenwriter field.
Lorraine Portman is an award winning Filmmaker, Playwright, and Screenwriter. Portman has directed seven short films and a feature. Her short film Falling South, has been programmed in over fifty film festivals and has won fourteen awards to date. Portman taught Playwriting and Screenwriting for ten years at Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Smith College and M.F.A. in Film from Florida State University. Portman also attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Portman has directed multiple well-reviewed theater productions. Portman has written a stack of screenplays which have been winning awards and placing in national and international competitions. Portman has optioned several screenplays and has done work for hire in many genres. Lorraine is a Screenplay Development Consultant for LA based Samaco Films.
Mark Harvey Levine has had over 1900 productions of his short plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Lima to London. His plays have won over 45 awards and been produced in more than ten languages. His work has been published in over two dozen anthologies by Applause, Smith & Kraus, Routledge and Vintage. Full evenings of his ten-minute plays, such as "Cabfare For The Common Man", “Didn’t See That Coming” and “A Very Special Holiday Special” have been shown around the world, including at the Edinburgh Fringe and in a multi-year tour of Brazil. A Spanish-language film of “The Kiss” (“El Beso”) premiered at Cannes and aired on HBO and DTV (Japan). Two of his plays were adapted for Brazilian television.
Matthew McLachlan is a Dramatist Guild Member and current Artist in Residence with Abingdon Theatre Company. He was born in Scotland, raised in Florida, and currently survives in New York City. He is a two-time ScreenCraft Stage Play Finalist and is the resident playwright for The Midnight Factory, a Pulse Ensemble Theatre member, and a Wynn Handman playwright in observance. His plays include: The Demand of Avarice, This God Damn House, Jack & Melissa, Orion, and The Place We Are Meant to Be, among others. His plays have been presented by Abingdon Theatre Company, Nylon Fusion, The NOW Collective, The Farm Theater, The PIT, Thespis Theater Festival, The Midnight Factory, and performed regionally in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Wyoming, & Florida. Other credits include: Nominated for Best Writer of a Web-Series (ADULTish), The Roast of Michael Musto (Head-Writer), & his published works A Collection of One-Acts & Other Things You May or May Not Enjoy and full-length play Orion are available now at The Drama Bookshop and on Amazon.
Monica Cross is a playwright from Gainesville, Florida. Her play The Aria of Julie d’Aubigny was a 2021 semifinalist for the O’Neill New Play Conference as well as a semifinalist for the American Shakespeare Center’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries competition. Her play Wonder of Our Stage won best play at the Players Centre for Performing Arts’ New Play Festival in 2018 and was a part of the Backstage at the Players Summer Sizzlers in 2019. Monica won the John Ringling Towers Individual Artists Award for Performing Arts in 2019 and was a Fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat the same year. Whiskey Theatre Factor premiered a virtual production of her one act play Cyrano on the Moon in November 2021. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Playwrights Thriving, and the Writer’s Alliance of Gainesville. Her work is available on the New Play Exchange.
Originally from Jasper, Indiana, Ryan taught and directed at Talawanda High School in Oxford, Ohio before moving to rural Virginia with his husband, John. He has been involved in nearly every aspect of theater--educational to professional-- dabbling in everything from directing to performing to designing to playwriting. Before leaving Cincinnati, he directed several staged readings through the Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative, and directed The Consciousness for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He is an alum of the CCM Playwriting workshop and is a founding member of the Next Stage Cincinnati Playwrights. His short play, Platypus, had been produced twice: once for Next Stage Nine in Cincinnati Ohio, and once for a virtual production through MadLab in Columbus, Ohio. He also has had two one-minute played produces at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati's One-Minute Play Festival. Additionally, he has had readings for the Fragmented Festival (Parts 1 and 2), Kentucky Playwrights, and the inaugural 2021 Whiskey Theatre Factory One-Minute Play Festival.
Scott Sauls is a ticketing software salesman by day and an aspiring playwright by night. Born and raised in Oklahoma with a degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and post graduate studies in Creative Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma. My first play ‘The Horseman’s Seed’ received a stage reading directed by James Rayfield at the freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg and a developmental reading at Player Playwrights in London. Currently I have two plays in development 'Gaia Explains It All - An Interview with the Mother of the Universe' and 'Renfield' a reimagining of the classic play Dracula. Acting credits include Allan Strang in Equus and John Merrick in 'The Elephant Man' at Performer's Studio Workshop. I am a resident of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Stephen Woosley has had his work performed by OGP, MadLab, Mind the Gap Theatre and Strangedog Theatre. He has also written a number of sketches for MadLab's TMX series (2005-2007), The Sketch Show (R.I.P.) and Sketchy Sex. He has a cat named Chloe. He is also the President of OGP, a new works theatre.
Meet the Actors!
Charis Watler
Charis Watler is an emerging Orlando theatre artist who is thrilled to be working with Whiskey Theatre Factory for the first time! She directed for the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Orlando Fringe, and a sci-fi play (The Consciousness by Bethany Dickens Assaf) currently showing at DigiFringe. She recently directed WTF’s staged reading of The Saints of West Orange County and cannot wait to work on more projects with WTF!
Jessie Ehrenberg
Jessie Ehrenberg is a professional hype man whose favorite past-times include wearing short sleeve button ups and smiling with his mouth open.
Liz Bernstein
Liz Bernstein (she/her/hers) is a training facilitator and career coach located in Central Florida. Her first loves, however, are acting, singing, performing, and creative writing. In pursuit of these loves, Liz studied theatre arts, creative writing, and psychology at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. She has always loved thinking deeply about what makes us human and finding ways to help people reach their ultimate goals. While attending the University of Central Florida for a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling, Liz continued performing with the collegiate a cappella group, Gemini Blvd. Since then, she has had the pleasure to perform with Orlando Cringe, Phoenix Tears Productions, Whiskey Theatre Factory, the Fragmented Festival, and Central Florida Community Arts, for staged readings and play workshops. Liz is passionate about telling meaningful stories and connecting with other people through art. She is overjoyed to be a part of WTF to help coordinate future productions and help all voices be heard.
Zach Lane
Show Producer - Kate Murray
Event Flow and Support - Liz Bernstein
Playwright Wrangler & Keeper of the secret prompt - Bethany Dickens Assaf
Ticketing and eventbrite support - Ghina Fawaz
Stage Management Support - Meghan Pratt
Host & Cocktail Goddess - Katie Thayer
Social Media - Charis Watler
Event Support & invaluable Cheerleading: Jodi Antenor & Logan Turner
THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR CONTRIBUTORS FROM PAST SHOWS WHO ADDED A DONATION TO THEIR OR MADE AN INVESTMENT IN WTF!
(If you added a donation to your ticket for our 2022 One-Minute Play Festival you will be on this list of awesomeness for our next show!)
Mary McDermott, Breanna Wells, Ava Love Hanna, Scott Sickles, Sara Hymes, Kevin Tyrrell, Sara Maclean, Matthew Davies, Arius West, Allison Jonjak, Travis Bedard, Jennifer Chasteen, Beth Sack-Rogers, Ernesto Maldonado, Ken Preuss, Davis Strauss, Kathryn Harding, Elle Dowdy, Ed Anthony, Danielle Miller, Elizabeth Marshall, Aliyah Colon, Brooke Dennis, Kimberly Patel, Jess Reilly, Logan Davis, Michelle Pascua, Jen Jacobson, Anthony Gonzalez, Cathy Rabino, Lars Seiler, Emily Lupfer, Leah Porrata, Patrick Rosengrant, Sara Oliva, Chris Niles, Jim Serrano, Jon Anderson, Florian Boehm, Alexandra Bautista, Ella Palardi, Jordan Henry, Carlee Coulehan, Suzi Appleton, Monica Rabino, Faith Dickens, Ashley Dougherty, Jennifer Barnickel-Fitch, Karen Berwick, Maxine Derington, R Graham Rogers, Nicole Amero, Molly Schoolmeester, Bennett Webb, Manuel Solis, Joshua Cartee, Pierre Antenor, Debra Cole, Nancy Dickens, Nicholas Simons, Donna Murray, Stephen Woosley, William Marksbury, Chris Niles, Jamie Clinton, Monica Cross, Katie Dumoulin, Jen Simon, Susan White, Cynthia Williams, Stephen Sturk, Meghan Pratt, Melody Winters, Christine Chouinard, Douglas Muscott, Amy Barnickel, John Boggess, Mala Patel, Doug Powhida, Jan Steffen, Gay Stenftenagel, Keith Jackson, Will Hunter, Mark Fernando, Brian Coley, Michael Hill, Sara Bitter David Schlosser, Matthew Kurk, Christine Cho, Robin Bidwell, Amanda Creighton
